Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon II became a pharaoh of the Twenty-second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He was the son of Takelot I and Queen Kapes. He ruled Egypt around 872 BCE to 837 BCE from Tanis, the capital of this Dynasty. After succeeding his father, he was faced with the competing rule of his cousin, King Harsiese A, who controlled both Thebes and the Western Oasis of Egypt. Osorkon feared the serious challenge posed by Harsiese's kingship to his authority, but, when Harsiese conveniently died in 860 BCE, Osorkon II ensured that this problem would not recur by appointing his own son Nimlot C as High Priest of Amun at Thebes. His younger son Shoshenq was made High Priest of Ptah at Memphis. In this period in Egypt's history, priestly and political power were at their most inseparable.

Ashur-nasir-pal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II, in 884 BCE. Renowned for his brutality, he conquered Mesopotamia and the territory of what is now Lebanon, adding them to the growing Assyrian empire, and built Nimrud. He also viciously ended a rebellion in the city of Suru in Bit-Halupe.